Search results for: respiratory frequency band

Authors: Nur Iman Subono, Meidi Kosandi

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This paper examines the role of regional cooperation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the fight against human trafficking for Indonesia. Many among scholars suggest that regional cooperation is necessary for combating human trafficking for its transnational and organized character as a crime against humanity. ASEAN members have been collectively active in responding transnational security issues with series of talks and collaboration agreement since early 2000s. Lately in 2015, ASEAN agreed on ASEAN Convention against Trafficking in Persons, particularly Women and Children (ACTIP) that requires each member to collaborate in information sharing and providing effective safeguard and protection of victims. Yet, the frequency of human trafficking crime occurrence remains high and tend to increase in Indonesian in 2017-2018. The objective of this paper is to examine the effectiveness and success of ACTIP implementation in the fight against human trafficking in Indonesia. Based on two years of research (2017-2018) in three provinces with the largest number of victims in Indonesia, this paper shows the tendency of persisting crime despite the implementation of regional and national anti-trafficking policies. The research was conducted by archive study, literature study, discourse analysis, and depth interviews with local government officials, police, prosecutors, victims, and traffickers. This paper argues that the relative success of ASEAN in establishing convention at the high-level meetings has not been followed with the success in its implementation in the society. Three main factors have contributed to the ineffectiveness of the agreements, i.e. (1) ASEAN institutional arrangement as a collection of sovereign states instead of supranational organization with binding authority; (2) the lack of commitment of ASEAN sovereign member-states to the agreements; and (3) the complexity and variety of the nature of the crime in each member-state. In effect, these factors have contributed to generating the regionalism paradox in ASEAN where states tend to revert to national policies instead of seeking regional collective solution.

Keywords: human trafficking, transnational security, regionalism, anti trafficking policy

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Authors: Y. Saylan, F. Yılmaz, A. Denizli

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Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) which is the most common autoimmune disorder of the body's own immune system attacking healthy cells. RA has both articular and systemic effects.Until now romatiod factor (RF) assay is used the most commonly diagnosed RA but it is not specific. Anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies are IgG autoantibodies which recognize citrullinated peptides and offer improved specificity in early diagnosis of RA compared to RF. Anti-CCP antibodies have specificity for the diagnosis of RA from 91 to 98% and the sensitivity rate of 41-68%. Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) are materials that are easy to prepare, less expensive, stable have a talent for molecular recognition and also can be manufactured in large quantities with good reproducibility. Molecular recognition-based adsorption techniques have received much attention in several fields because of their high selectivity for target molecules. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is an effective, simple, inexpensive approach mass changes that can be converted into an electrical signal. The applications for specific determination of chemical substances or biomolecules, crystal electrodes, cover by the thin films for bind or adsorption of molecules. In this study, we have focused our attention on combining of molecular imprinting into nanofilms and QCM nanosensor approaches and producing QCM nanosensor for anti-CCP, chosen as a model protein, using anti-CCP imprinted nanofilms. For this aim, anti-CCP imprinted QCM nanosensor was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, contact angle measurements and ellipsometry. The non-imprinted nanosensor was also prepared to evaluate the selectivity of the imprinted nanosensor. Anti-CCP imprinted QCM nanosensor was tested for real-time detection of anti-CCP from aqueous solution. The kinetic and affinity studies were determined by using anti-CCP solutions with different concentrations. The responses related with mass shifts (Δm) and frequency shifts (Δf) were used to evaluate adsorption properties and to calculate binding (Ka) and dissociation (Kd) constants. To show the selectivity of the anti-CCP imprinted QCM nanosensor, competitive adsorption of anti-CCP and IgM was investigated.The results indicate that anti-CCP imprinted QCM nanosensor has a higher adsorption capabilities for anti-CCP than for IgM, due to selective cavities in the polymer structure.

Keywords: anti-CCP, molecular imprinting, nanosensor, rheumatoid arthritis, QCM

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Authors: Shobha Ramalingam

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The majority of the infrastructure projects are affected by time overrun, resulting in project delays and subsequently cost overruns. Time overrun may vary from a few months to as high as five or more years, placing the project viability at risk. One of the probable reasons noted in the literature for this outcome in projects is due to poor productivity. Researchers contend that productivity in construction has only marginally increased over the years. While studies in the literature have extensively focused on time and cost parameters in projects, there are limited studies that integrate time and cost with productivity to assess project performance. To this end, a study was conducted to understand the project delay factors concerning cost, time and productivity. A case-study approach was adopted to collect rich data from a nuclear power plant project site for two months through observation, interviews and document review. The data were analyzed using three different approaches for a comprehensive understanding. Foremost, a root-cause analysis was performed on the data using Ishikawa’s fish-bone diagram technique to identify the various factors impacting the delay concerning time. Based on it, a questionnaire was designed and circulated to concerned executives, including project engineers and contractors to determine the frequency of occurrence of the delay, which was then compiled and presented to the management for a possible solution to mitigate. Second, a productivity analysis was performed on select activities, including rebar bending and concreting through a time-motion study to analyze product performance. Third, data on cost of construction for three years allowed analyzing the cost performance using earned value management technique. All three techniques allowed to systematically and comprehensively identify the key factors that deter project performance and productivity loss in the construction of the nuclear power plant project. The findings showed that improper planning and coordination between multiple trades, concurrent operations, improper workforce and material management, fatigue due to overtime were some of the key factors that led to delays and poor productivity. The findings are expected to act as a stepping stone for further research and have implications for practitioners.

Keywords: earned value analysis, time performance, project costs, project delays, construction productivity

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Authors: Gabriel Sunday Ayayia

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Food waste remains a critical global challenge with significant environmental, economic, and ethical implications. In an era where food waste and food insecurity coexist, innovative technology-driven solutions have emerged, aiming to bridge the gap between surplus food and those in need. Simultaneously, disparities in food access persist, exacerbating issues of hunger and malnutrition. Emerging food-sharing apps offer a promising avenue to mitigate these problems but require further examination within the context of the Ubuntu sharing economy. This study seeks to understand the impact of food-sharing apps, guided by the principles of Ubuntu, on reducing food waste and enhancing food access. The study examines how specific food-sharing apps within the Ubuntu sharing economy could contribute to fostering community resilience and reducing food waste. Ubuntu underscores the idea that we are all responsible for the well-being of our community members. In the context of food waste, this means that individuals and businesses have a collective responsibility to ensure that surplus food is shared rather than wasted. Food-sharing apps align with this principle by facilitating the sharing of excess food with those in need, transforming waste into a communal resource. This research employs a mixed-methods approach of both quantitative analysis and qualitative inquiry. Large-scale surveys will be conducted to assess user behavior, attitudes, and experiences with food-sharing apps, focusing on the frequency of use, motivations, and perceived impacts. Qualitative interviews with app users, community organizers, and stakeholders will explore the Ubuntu-inspired aspects of food-sharing apps and their influence on reducing food waste and improving food access. Quantitative data will be analyzed using statistical techniques, while qualitative data will undergo thematic analysis to identify key patterns and insights. This research addresses a critical gap in the literature by examining the role of food-sharing apps in reducing food waste and enhancing food access, particularly within the Ubuntu sharing economy framework. Findings will offer valuable insights for policymakers, technology developers, and communities seeking to leverage technology to create a more just and sustainable food system.

Keywords: sharing economy, food waste reduction, technology, community- based approach

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Authors: Vadim V. Yanshole, Lyudmila V. Yanshole, Alexey S. Kiryutin, Timofey D. Verkhovod, Yuri P. Tsentalovich

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Cataract, or clouding of the eye lens, is the leading cause of vision impairment in the world. The lens tissue have very specific structure: It does not have vascular system, the lens proteins – crystallins – do not turnover throughout lifespan. The protection of lens proteins is provided by the metabolites which diffuse inside the lens from the aqueous humor or synthesized in the lens epithelial layer. Therefore, the study of changes in the metabolite composition of a cataractous lens as compared to a normal lens may elucidate the possible mechanisms of the cataract formation. Quantitative metabolomic profiles of normal and cataractous human lenses were obtained with the combined use of high-frequency nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and ion-pairing high-performance liquid chromatography with high-resolution mass-spectrometric detection (LC-MS) methods. The quantitative content of more than fifty metabolites has been determined in this work for normal aged and cataractous human lenses. The most abundant metabolites in the normal lens are myo-inositol, lactate, creatine, glutathione, glutamate, and glucose. For the majority of metabolites, their levels in the lens cortex and nucleus are similar, with the few exceptions including antioxidants and UV filters: The concentrations of glutathione, ascorbate and NAD in the lens nucleus decrease as compared to the cortex, while the levels of the secondary UV filters formed from primary UV filters in redox processes increase. That confirms that the lens core is metabolically inert, and the metabolic activity in the lens nucleus is mostly restricted by protection from the oxidative stress caused by UV irradiation, UV filter spontaneous decomposition, or other factors. It was found that the metabolomic composition of normal and age-matched cataractous human lenses differ significantly. The content of the most important metabolites – antioxidants, UV filters, and osmolytes – in the cataractous nucleus is at least ten fold lower than in the normal nucleus. One may suppose that the majority of these metabolites are synthesized in the lens epithelial layer, and that age-related cataractogenesis might originate from the dysfunction of the lens epithelial cells. Comprehensive quantitative metabolic profiles of the human eye lens have been acquired for the first time. The obtained data can be used for the analysis of changes in the lens chemical composition occurring with age and with the cataract development.

Keywords: cataract, lens, NMR, LC-MS, metabolome

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Authors: Sairi Satari

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Introduction: Six-sigma is a metric that quantifies the performance of processes as a rate of Defects-Per-Million Opportunities. Sigma methodology can be applied in chemical pathology laboratory for evaluating process performance with evidence for process improvement in quality assurance program. In the laboratory, these methods have been used to improve the timeliness of troubleshooting, reduce the cost and frequency of quality control and minimize pre and post-analytical errors. Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the sigma values of the Cobas 8000 analyzer based on the minimum requirement of the specification. Methodology: Twenty-one analytes were chosen in this study. The analytes were alanine aminotransferase (ALT), albumin, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), Amylase, aspartate transaminase (AST), total bilirubin, calcium, chloride, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, creatinine, creatinine kinase, glucose, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), magnesium, potassium, protein, sodium, triglyceride, uric acid and urea. Total error was obtained from Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). The Bias was calculated from end cycle report of Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) cycle from July to December 2016 and coefficient variation (CV) from six-month internal quality control (IQC). The sigma was calculated based on the formula :Sigma = (Total Error - Bias) / CV. The analytical performance was evaluated based on the sigma, sigma > 6 is world class, sigma > 5 is excellent, sigma > 4 is good and sigma < 4 is satisfactory and sigma < 3 is poor performance. Results: Based on the calculation, we found that, 96% are world class (ALT, albumin, ALP, amylase, AST, total bilirubin, cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, creatinine, creatinine kinase, glucose, LDH, magnesium, potassium, triglyceride and uric acid. 14% are excellent (calcium, protein and urea), and 10% ( chloride and sodium) require more frequent IQC performed per day. Conclusion: Based on this study, we found that IQC should be performed frequently for only Chloride and Sodium to ensure accurate and reliable analysis for patient management.

Keywords: sigma matrics, analytical performance, total error, bias

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Authors: AliAkbar Hafezi, Jamshid Abedi, Jalal Taherian, Behnam Kadkhodaei, Mahsa Elahi

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Background. Peripheral neuropathy is a common side effect of the administration of neurotoxic chemotherapy agents. This adverse effect is a major dose-limiting factor of many commonly used chemotherapy drugs. Currently, there are no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved medications for the prevention or treatment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the efficacy and safety of metformin on paclitaxel-induced peripheral neuropathy (PIPN). Methods. In this randomized clinical trial, cancer patients who were candidates for chemotherapy with paclitaxel referred to the radiation oncology departments in Iran from 2022 to 2023 were studied. Patients were randomly divided into two groups; 1- Case group (n = 30) received metformin 500 mg orally twice a day after meals during chemotherapy with paclitaxel, and 2- Control group (30 people) received chemotherapy without metformin or any additional medication. Patients were visited in terms of numbness or other neurological symptoms two weeks before chemotherapy, 1-2 days before and weekly during chemotherapy, and at the end of the study. They were assessed by nerve conduction study (NCS) before intervention and one week after the end of chemotherapy. The primary outcome was the efficacy in reducing PIPN and the secondary outcome was adverse effects. Eventually, the outcomes were compared between the two groups of patients. Results. A total of 60 female cancer patients receiving chemotherapy with paclitaxel were evaluated in two groups. The groups were matched in terms of age, body mass index, fasting blood sugar, smoking, pathologic stage, and creatinine levels. The results showed that 18 patients (60.0 %) in the case group and 23 patients (76.6 %) in the control group had PIPN clinically (P = 0.267), and NCS showed 11 patients (36.6 %) in the case group and 15 patients (50.0 %) in the control group suffered from PIPN which no significant difference was observed between the two groups (P = 0.435). Diarrhea (n = 3; 10.0 %) and nausea (n = 3; 10.0 %) were the most common side effects of metformin in the case group and no serious side effects (lactic acidosis and anemia) were found in these patients. Conclusion. This study indicated that metformin did not significantly prevent PIPN in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy, although the frequency of peripheral neuropathy in the case group was lower than in the control group. The use of metformin in the patients had acceptable safety and no serious side effects were reported.

Keywords: peripheral neuropathy, chemotherapy, paclitaxel, metformin

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Authors: Judith Awacorach, Quentin Gausset

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Wood charcoal and firewood are the primary sources of energy for cooking fuel in most Sub-Saharan African countries, including Uganda. This leads to unsustainable forest use and to rapid deforestation. Green charcoal (made out of agricultural residues that are carbonized, reduced in char powder, and glued in briquettes, using a binder such as sugar molasse, cassava flour or clay) is a promising and sustainable alternative to wood charcoal and firewood. It is considered as renewable energy because the carbon emissions released by the combustion of green charcoal are immediately captured again in the next agricultural cycle. If practiced on a large scale, this has the potential to replace wood charcoal and stop deforestation. However, the uptake of green charcoal for cooking remains low in Uganda despite the introduction of the technology 15 years ago. The present paper reviews the barriers to the production and commercialization of green charcoal. The paper is based on the study of 13 production sites, recording the raw materials used, the production techniques, the quantity produced, the frequency of production, and the business model. Observations were made on each site, and interviews were conducted with the managers of the facilities and with one or two employees in the larger facilities. We also interviewed project administrators from four funding agencies interested in financing green charcoal production. The results of our research identify the main barriers as follows: 1) The price of green charcoal is not competitive (it is more labor and capital-intensive than wood charcoal). 2) There is a problem with quality control and labeling (one finds a wide variety of green charcoal with very different performances). 3) The carbonization of agricultural crop residues is a major bottleneck in green char production. Most briquettes are produced with wood charcoal dust or powder, which is a by-product of wood charcoal. As such, they increase the efficiency of wood charcoal but do not yet replace it. 4) There is almost no marketing chain for the product (most green charcoal is sold directly from producer to consumer without any middleman). 5) The financing institutions are reluctant to lend money for this kind of activity. 6) Storage can be challenging since briquettes can dissolve due to moisture. In conclusion, a number of important barriers need to be overcome before green charcoal can become a serious alternative to wood charcoal.

Keywords: briquettes, competitiveness, deforestation, green charcoal, renewable energy

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Authors: Amina Akhtar, Rory O'Connor

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Introduction: There remains significant morbidity and mortality in young pedestrians hit by motor vehicles, even in the era of pedestrian crossings and speed limits. The aim of this study was to compare incidence and injury severity of motor vehicle-related pedestrian trauma according to time of day and season in a young population, based on the supposition that injuries would be more prevalent during dusk and dawn and during autumn and winter. Methods: Data was retrieved for patients between 10-25 years old from the National Trauma Audit and Research Network (TARN) database who had been involved as pedestrians in motor vehicle accidents between 2015-2020. The incidence of injuries, their severity (using the Injury Severity Score [ISS]), hospital transfer time, and mortality were analysed according to the hours of daylight, darkness, and season. Results: The study identified a seasonal pattern, showing that autumn was the predominant season and led to 34.9% of injuries, with a further 25.4% in winter in comparison to spring and summer, with 21.4% and 18.3% of injuries, respectively. However, visibility alone was not a sufficient factor as 49.5% of injuries occurred during the time of darkness, while 50.5% occurred during daylight. Importantly, the greatest injury rate (number of injuries/hour) occurred between 1500-1630, correlating to school pick-up times. A further significant relationship between injury severity score (ISS) and daylight was demonstrated (p-value= 0.0124), with moderate injuries (ISS 9-14) occurring most commonly during the day (72.7%) and more severe injuries (ISS>15) occurred during the night (55.8%). Conclusion: We have identified a relationship between time of day and the frequency and severity of pedestrian trauma in young people. In addition, particular time groupings correspond to the greatest injury rate, suggesting that reduced visibility coupled with school pick-up times may play a significant role. This could be addressed through a targeted public health approach to implementing change. We recommend targeted public health measures to improve road safety that focus on these times and that increase the visibility of children combined with education for drivers.

Keywords: major trauma, paediatric trauma, road traffic accidents, diurnal pattern

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Authors: Kambiz Rasoulkhani, Jeanne Cole, Sybil Sharvelle, Ali Mostafavi

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Dual water distribution systems have been proposed as solutions to enhance the sustainability and resilience of urban water systems by improving performance and decreasing energy consumption. The objective of this study was to evaluate the long-term resilience and robustness of dual water distribution systems versus singular water distribution systems under various stressors such as demand fluctuation, aging infrastructure, and funding constraints. To this end, the long-term dynamics of these infrastructure systems was captured using a simulation model that integrates institutional agency decision-making processes with physical infrastructure degradation to evaluate the long-term transformation of water infrastructure. A set of model parameters that varies for dual and singular distribution infrastructure based on the system attributes, such as pipes length and material, energy intensity, water demand, water price, average pressure and flow rate, as well as operational expenditures, were considered and input in the simulation model. Accordingly, the model was used to simulate various scenarios of demand changes, funding levels, water price growth, and renewal strategies. The long-term resilience and robustness of each distribution infrastructure were evaluated based on various performance measures including network average condition, break frequency, network leakage, and energy use. An ecologically-based resilience approach was used to examine regime shifts and tipping points in the long-term performance of the systems under different stressors. Also, Classification and Regression Tree analysis was adopted to assess the robustness of each system under various scenarios. Using data from the City of Fort Collins, the long-term resilience and robustness of the dual and singular water distribution systems were evaluated over a 100-year analysis horizon for various scenarios. The results of the analysis enabled: (i) comparison between dual and singular water distribution systems in terms of long-term performance, resilience, and robustness; (ii) identification of renewal strategies and decision factors that enhance the long-term resiliency and robustness of dual and singular water distribution systems under different stressors.

Keywords: complex systems, dual water distribution systems, long-term resilience performance, multi-agent modeling, sustainable and resilient water systems

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Authors: Veronica S. Moertini, Vinsensius Kevin, Gede Karya

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Customer reviews have been collected by many kinds of e-commerce websites selling products, services, hotel rooms, tickets and so on. Each website collects its own customer reviews. The reviews can be crawled, collected from those websites and stored as big data. Text analysis techniques can be used to analyze that data to produce summarized information, such as customer opinions. Then, these opinions can be published by independent service provider websites and used to help customers in choosing the most suitable products or services. As the opinions are analyzed from big data of reviews originated from many websites, it is expected that the results are more trusted and accurate. Indonesian customers write reviews in Indonesian language, which comes with its own structures and uniqueness. We found that most of the reviews are expressed with “daily language”, which is informal, do not follow the correct grammar, have many abbreviations and slangs or non-formal words. Hadoop is an emerging platform aimed for storing and analyzing big data in distributed systems. A Hadoop cluster consists of master and slave nodes/computers operated in a network. Hadoop comes with distributed file system (HDFS) and MapReduce framework for supporting parallel computation. However, MapReduce has weakness (i.e. inefficient) for iterative computations, specifically, the cost of reading/writing data (I/O cost) is high. Given this fact, we conclude that MapReduce function is best adapted for “one-pass” computation. In this research, we develop an efficient technique for extracting or mining opinions from big data of Indonesian reviews, which is based on MapReduce with one-pass computation. In designing the algorithm, we avoid iterative computation and instead adopt a “look up table” technique. The stages of the proposed technique are: (1) Crawling the data reviews from websites; (2) cleaning and finding root words from the raw reviews; (3) computing the frequency of the meaningful opinion words; (4) analyzing customers sentiments towards defined objects. The experiments for evaluating the performance of the technique were conducted on a Hadoop cluster with 14 slave nodes. The results show that the proposed technique (stage 2 to 4) discovers useful opinions, is capable of processing big data efficiently and scalable.

Keywords: big data analysis, Hadoop MapReduce, analyzing text data, mining Indonesian reviews

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Authors: Naomi Nathan

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Introduction Digitalization of medical education can revolutionize how medical students learn and interact with the medical curriculum across contexts. With the increasing availability of the internet and mobile connectivity in LMICs, online medical education platforms and digital learning tools are becoming more widely available, providing new opportunities for learners to access high-quality medical education and training. However, the adoption and integration of digital technologies in medical education in LMICs is a complex process influenced by various factors, including learners' perceptions and attitudes toward digital learning. In Ethiopia, the adoption of digital platforms for medical education has been slow, with traditional face-to-face teaching methods still being the norm. However, as access to technology improves and more universities adopt digital platforms, it is crucial to understand how medical students perceive this shift. Methodology This study investigated medical students' perception of the digitalization of medical education in relation to their access to the Lecturio Digital Medical Education Platform through a capacity-building project. 740 medical students from over 20 medical universities participated in the study. The students were surveyed using a questionnaire that included their attitudes toward the digitalization of medical education, their frequency of use of the digital platform, and their perceived benefits and challenges. Results The study results showed that most medical students had a positive attitude toward digitalizing medical education. The most commonly cited benefit was the convenience and flexibility of accessing course material/curriculum online. Many students also reported that they found the platform more interactive and engaging, leading to a more meaningful learning experience. The study also identified several challenges medical students faced when using the platform. The most commonly reported challenge was the need for more reliable internet access, which made it difficult for students to access content consistently. Overall, the results of this study suggest that medical students in Ethiopia have a positive perception of the digitalization of medical education. Over 97% of students continuously expressed a need for access to the Lecturio platform throughout their studies. Conclusion Significant challenges still need to be addressed to fully realize the Lecturio digital platform's benefits. Universities, relevant ministries, and various stakeholders must work together to address these challenges to ensure that medical students fully participate in and benefit from digitalized medical education - sustainably and effectively.

Keywords: digital medical education, EdTech, LMICs, e-learning

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Authors: Wilfred A. Abiaa, Chibundu N. Ezekiel, Benedikt Warth, Michael Sulyok, Paul C. Turner, Rudolf Krska, Paul F. Moundipa

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Mycotoxins are a wide range of toxic secondary metabolites of fungi that contaminate various food commodities worldwide especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Such contamination seriously compromises food safety and quality posing a serious problem for human health as well as to trade and the economy. Their concentrations depend on various factors, such as the commodity itself, climatic conditions, storage conditions, seasonal variances, and processing methods. When humans consume foods contaminated by mycotoxins, they exert toxic effects to their health through various modes of actions. Rural populations in sub-Saharan Africa, are exposed to dietary mycotoxins, but it is supposed that exposure levels and health risks associated with mycotoxins between SSA countries may vary. Dietary exposures and health risk assessment studies have been limited by lack of equipment for the proper assessment of the associated health implications on consumer populations when they eat contaminated agricultural products. As such, mycotoxin research is premature in several SSA nations with product evaluation for mycotoxin loads below/above legislative limits being inadequate. Few nations have health risk assessment reports mainly based on direct quantification of the toxins in foods ('external exposure') and linking food levels with data from food frequency questionnaires. Nonetheless, the assessment of the exposure and health risk to mycotoxins requires more than the traditional approaches. Only a fraction of the mycotoxins in contaminated foods reaches the blood stream and exert toxicity ('internal exposure'). Also, internal exposure is usually smaller than external exposure thus dependence on external exposure alone may induce confounders in risk assessment. Some studies from SSA earlier focused on biomarker analysis mainly on aflatoxins while a few recent studies have concentrated on the multi-biomarker analysis of exposures in urine providing probable associations between observed disease occurrences and dietary mycotoxins levels. As a result, new techniques that could assess the levels of exposures directly in body tissue or fluid, and possibly link them to the disease state of individuals became urgent.

Keywords: mycotoxins, biomarkers, exposure assessment, health risk assessment, sub-Saharan Africa

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Authors: Li-Ching Lin, Yu-Tzu Dai

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Recurrent foot ulcers or foot amputation have a major impact on patients with diabetes mellitus (DM), medical professionals, and society. A critical procedure for foot care is foot self-monitoring. Medical professionals’ understanding of patients’ foot self-monitoring knowledge, attitude, and practice is beneficial for raising patients’ disease awareness. This study investigated these and related factors among patients with DM through a descriptive study of the correlations. A scale for measuring the foot self-monitoring knowledge, attitude, and practice of patients with DM was used. Purposive sampling was adopted, and 100 samples were collected from the respondents’ self-reports or from interviews. The statistical methods employed were an independent-sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multivariate regression analysis. The findings were as follows: the respondents scored an average of 12.97 on foot self-monitoring knowledge, and the correct answer rate was 68.26%. The respondents performed relatively lower in foot health screenings and recording, and awareness of neuropathy in the foot. The respondents held a positive attitude toward self-monitoring their feet and a negative attitude toward having others check the soles of their feet. The respondents scored an average of 12.64 on foot self-monitoring practice. Their scores were lower in their frequency of self-monitoring their feet, recording their self-monitoring results, checking their pedal pulse, and examining if their soles were red immediately after taking off their shoes. Significant positive correlations were observed among foot self-monitoring knowledge, attitude, and practice. The correlation coefficient between self-monitoring knowledge and self-monitoring practice was 0.20, and that between self-monitoring attitude and self-monitoring practice was 0.44. Stepwise regression analysis revealed that the main predictive factors of the foot self-monitoring practice in patients with DM were foot self-monitoring attitude, prior experience in foot care, and an educational attainment of college or higher. These factors predicted 33% of the variance. This study concludes that patients with DM lacked foot self-monitoring practice and advises that the patients’ self-monitoring abilities be evaluated first, including whether patients have poor eyesight, difficulties in bending forward due to obesity, and people who can assist them in self-monitoring. In addition, patient education should emphasize self-monitoring knowledge and practice, such as perceptions regarding the symptoms of foot neurovascular lesions, pulse monitoring methods, and new foot self-monitoring equipment. By doing so, new or recurring ulcers may be discovered in their early stages.

Keywords: diabetic foot, foot self-monitoring attitude, foot self-monitoring knowledge, foot self-monitoring practice

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Authors: Vichayada Laohapiboolkul

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Introduction: As the legal use of cannabis is being widely accepted throughout the world, medical cannabis has been explored in order to become an alternative cure for patients. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD) are natural cannabinoids found in the Cannabis plant which is proved to have positive treatment for various diseases and symptoms such as chronic pain, neuropathic pain, spasticity resulting from multiple sclerosis, reduce cancer-associated pain, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), dementia, cannabis and opioid dependence, psychoses/schizophrenia, general social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Tourette's disorder. Regardless of all the medical benefits, THC, if not metabolized, can lead to mild up to severe adverse drug reactions (ADR). The enzyme CYP2C19 was found to be one of the metabolizers of THC. However, the suballele CYP2C19*2 manifests as a poor metabolizer which could lead to higher levels of THC than usual, possibly leading to various ADRs. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the distribution of CYP2C19, specifically CYP2C19*2, genes in Thai patients treated with medical cannabis along with adverse drug reactions. Materials and Methods: Clinical data and EDTA whole blood for DNA extraction and genotyping were collected from patients for this study. CYP2C19*2 (681G>A, rs4244285) genotyping was conducted using the Real-time PCR (ABI, Foster City, CA, USA). Results: There were 42 medical cannabis-induced ADRs cases and 18 medical cannabis tolerance controls who were included in this study. A total of 60 patients were observed where 38 (63.3%) patients were female and 22 (36.7%) were male, with a range of age approximately 19 - 87 years. The most apparent ADRs for medical cannabis treatment were dry mouth/dry throat (76.7%), followed by tachycardia (70%), nausea (30%) and a few arrhythmias (10%). In the total of 27 cases, we found a frequency of 18 CYP2C19*1/*1 alleles (normal metabolizers, 66.7%), 8 CYP2C19*1/*2 alleles (intermediate metabolizers, 29.6%) and 1 CYP2C19*2/*2 alleles (poor metabolizers, 3.7%). Meanwhile, 63.6% of CYP2C19*1/*1, 36.3% and 0% of CYP2C19*1/*2 and *2/*2 in the tolerance controls group, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first study to confirm the distribution of CYP2C19*2 allele and the prevalence of poor metabolizer genes in Thai patients who received medical cannabis for treatment. Thus, CYP2C19 allele might serve as a pharmacogenetics marker for screening before initiating treatment.

Keywords: medical cannabis, adverse drug reactions, CYP2C19, tetrahydrocannabinol, poor metabolizer

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Authors: Manuela S. Tolentino, John G. Nepomuceno

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The purpose of this investigation was to assess the implementation of inclusive education (IE) in 6 elementary and 5 secondary public schools in the City Schools Division of Dasmarinas. Participants in this study were 11 school heads, 73 teachers, 22 parents and 22 students (regular and with special needs) who were selected using purposive sampling. A 30-item questionnaire was used to gather data on the extent of the implementation of IE in the division while focus group discussion (FGD) was used to gather insights on what facilitate and hinder the implementation of the IE program. This study assessed the following variables: school culture and environment, inclusive education policy implementation, and curriculum design and practices. Data were analyzed using frequency count, mean and ranking. Results revealed that participants have similar assessment on the extent of the implementation of IE. School heads rated school culture and environment as highest in terms of implementation while teachers and pupils chose curriculum design and practices. On the other hand, parents felt that inclusive education policies are implemented best. School culture and environment are given high ratings. Participants perceived that the IE program in the division is making everyone feel welcome regardless of age, sex, social status, physical, mental and emotional state; students with or without disability are equally valued, and students help each. However, some aspects of the IE program implementation are given low ratings namely: partnership between staff, parents and caregivers, school’s effort to minimize discriminatory practice, and stakeholders sharing the philosophy of inclusion. As regards education policy implementation, indicators with the highest ranks were school’s effort to admit students from the locality especially students with special needs, and the implementation of the child protection policy and anti-bullying policy. The results of the FGD revealed that both school heads and teachers possessed the welcoming gesture to accommodate students with special needs. This can be linked to the increasing enrolment of SNE in the division. However, limitations of the teachers’ knowledge on handling learners, facilities and collaboration among stakeholders hinder the implementation of IE program. Based on the findings, inclusion program framework was developed for program enhancement. This will be the basis for the improvement of the program’s efficiency, the relationship between stakeholders, and formulation of solutions.

Keywords: inclusion, inclusive education, framework, special education

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Authors: M. R. Babaei, S. M. Hosseini, S. Rahmani, L. Moradi

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Today, the quality of education and training systems and the effectiveness of the education systems of most concern to stakeholders and decision-makers of our country's development in each country. In Iran this is a double issue of concern to numerous reasons; So that governments, over the past decade have hardly even paid the running costs of education. ICT is claiming it has the power to change the structure of a program for training, reduce costs and increase quality, and do education systems and products consistent with the needs of the community and take steps to practice education. Own of the areas that the introduction of information technology has fundamentally changed is the field of education. The aim of this research is process reengineering management in schools simultaneously has been using field studies to collect data in the form of interviews and a questionnaire survey. The statistical community of this research has been the country of Iran and smart schools under the education. Sampling was targeted. The data collection tool was a questionnaire composed of two parts. The questionnaire consists of 36 questions that each question designates one of effective factors on the management of smart schools. Also each question consists of two parts. The first part designates the operating position in the management process, which represents the domain's belonging to the management agent (planning, organizing, leading, controlling). According to the classification of Dabryn and in second part the factors affect the process of managing the smart schools were examined, that Likert scale is used to classify. Questions the validity of the group of experts and prominent university professors in the fields of information technology, management and reengineering of approved and Cronbach's alpha reliability and also with the use of the formula is evaluated and approved. To analyse the data, descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the factors contributing to the rating of (Linkert scale) descriptive statistics (frequency table data, mean, median, mode) was used. To analyse the data using analysis of variance and nonparametric tests and Friedman test, the assumption was evaluated. The research conclusions show that the factors influencing the management process re-engineering smart schools in school performance is affected.

Keywords: re-engineering, management process, smart school, Iran's school

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Authors: Ayca Bilginoglu, Belma Turan

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Metabolic syndrome, is associated impaired blood glucose level, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia caused by abdominal obesity. Also, it is related with cardiovascular risk accumulation and cardiomyopathy. The hypothesis of this study was to examine the effect of thiazolidinediones such as pioglitazone which is widely used insulin-sensitizing agents that improve glycemic control, on intracellular Na+ homeostasis in metabolic syndrome-induced cardiomyopathy in male rats. Male Wistar-Albino rats were randomly divided into three groups, namely control (Con, n=7), metabolic syndrome (MetS, n=7) and pioglitazone treated metabolic syndrome group (MetS+PGZ, n=7). Metabolic syndrome was induced by providing drinking water that was 32% sucrose, for 18 weeks. All of the animals were exposed to a 12 h light – 12 h dark cycle. Abdominal obesity and glucose intolerance had measured as a marker of metabolic syndrome. Intracellular Na+ ([Na+]i) is an important modulator of excitation–contraction coupling in heart. [Na+]i at rest and [Na+]i during pacing with electrical field stimulation in 0.2 Hz, 0.8 Hz, 2.0 Hz stimulation frequency were recorded in cardiomyocytes. Also, Na+ channel current (INa) density and I-V curve were measured to understand [Na+]i homeostasis. In results, high sucrose intake, as well as the normal daily diet, significantly increased body mass and blood glucose level of the rats in the metabolic syndrome group as compared with the non-treated control group. In MetS+PZG group, the blood glucose level and body inclined to decrease to the Con group. There was a decrease in INa density and there was a shift both activation and inactivation curve of INa. Pioglitazone reversed the shift to the control side. Basal [Na+]i either MetS and Con group were not significantly different, but there was a significantly increase in [Na+]i in stimulated cardiomyocytes in MetS group. Furthermore, pioglitazone had not effect on basal [Na+]i but it reversed the increase in [Na+]i in stimulated cardiomyocytes to the that of Con group. Results of the present study suggest that pioglitazone has a significant effect on the Na+ homeostasis in the metabolic syndrome induced cardiomyopathy in rats. All animal procedures and experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Ankara University Faculty of Medicine (2015-2-37).

Keywords: insulin resistance, intracellular sodium, metabolic syndrome, sodium current

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Authors: Luedech Girdwichai, Withaya Mekhum

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This research intended to develop the model of community management for sustainable utilization by investigating on 2 groups of population, the family heads and the community management team. The population of the former group consisted of family heads from 511 families in 12 areas to complete the questionnaires which were returned at 479 sets. The latter group consisted of the community management team of 12 areas with 1 representative from each area to give the interview. The questionnaires for the family heads consisted of 2 main parts; general information such as occupations, etc. in the form of checklist. The second part dealt with the data on self reliance community development based on 4P Framework, i.e., People (human resource) development, Place (area) development, Product (economic and income source) development, and Plan (community plan) development in the form of rating scales. Data in the 1st part were calculated to find frequency and percentage while those in the 2nd part were analyzed to find arithmetic mean and SD. Data from the 2nd group of population or the community management team were derived from focus group to find factors influencing successful management together with the in depth interview which were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The results showed that 479 family heads reported that the aspect on the implementation of community plan to self reliance community activities based on Sufficient Economy Philosophy and the 4P was at the average of 3.28 or moderate level. When considering in details, it was found that the 1st aspect was on the area development with the mean of 3.71 or high level followed by human resource development with the mean of 3.44 or moderate level, then, economic and source of income development with the mean of 3.09 or moderate level. The last aspect was community plan development with the mean of 2.89. The results from the small group discussion revealed some factors and guidelines for successful community management as follows: 1) on the People (human resource) development aspect, there was a project to support and develop community leaders. 2) On the aspect of Place (area) development, there was a development on conservative tourism areas. 3) On the aspect of Product (economic and source of income) development, the community leaders promoted the setting of occupational group, saving group, and product processing group. 4) On the aspect of Plan (community plan) development, there was a prioritization through public hearing.

Keywords: model of community management, sustainable utilization, family heads, community management team

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Authors: Alvaro L. Ronco

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Background and purpose: Although our country is a developing one, it has a typical Western meat-rich dietary style. Based on estimates of heme and nonheme iron contents in representative foods, we carried out the present epidemiologic study, with the aim of accurately analyzing dietary iron and its role on CRC risk. Subjects/methods: Patients (611 CRC incident cases and 2394 controls, all belonging to public hospitals of our capital city) were interviewed through a questionnaire including socio-demographic, reproductive and lifestyle variables, and a food frequency questionnaire of 64 items, which asked about food intake 5 years before the interview. The sample included 1937 men and 1068 women. Controls were matched by sex and age (± 5 years) to cases. Food-derived nutrients were calculated from available databases. Total dietary iron was calculated and classified by heme or nonheme source, following data of specific Dutch and Canadian studies, and additionally adjusted by energy. Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated through unconditional logistic regression, adjusting for relevant potential confounders (education, body mass index, family history of cancer, energy, infusions, and others). A heme/nonheme (H/NH) ratio was created and the interest variables were categorized into tertiles, for analysis purposes. Results: The following risk estimations correspond to the highest tertiles. Total iron intake showed no association with CRC risk neither among men (OR=0.83, ptrend =.18) nor among women (OR=1.48, ptrend =.09). Heme iron was positively associated among men (OR=1.88, ptrend < .001) and for the overall sample (OR=1.44, ptrend =.002), however, it was not associated among women (OR=0.91, ptrend =.83). Nonheme iron showed an inverse association among men (OR=0.53, ptrend < .001) and the overall sample (OR=0.78, ptrend =.04), but was not associated among women (OR=1.46, ptrend =.14). Regarding H/NH ratio, risks increased only among men (OR=2.12, ptrend < .001) but lacked of association among women (OR=0.81, ptrend =.29). Conclusions. We have observed different types of associations between CRC risk and high dietary heme, nonheme and H/NH iron ratio. Therefore, the source of the available iron might be of importance as a link to colorectal carcinogenesis, perhaps pointing to reconsider the animal/plant proportions of this vital mineral within diet. Nevertheless, the different associations observed for each sex, demand further studies in order to clarify these points.

Keywords: chelation, colorectal cancer, heme, iron, nonheme

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Authors: Petcharat  Kerdonfag, Surasak Taneepanichskul, Winai Wadwongtham

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Industrial noise is usually considered as the main impact of the environmental health and safety because its exposure can cause permanently serious hearing damage. Despite providing strictly hearing protection standards and campaigning extensively encouraging public health awareness among industrial workers in Thailand, hazard noise-induced hearing loss has dramatically been massive obstacles for workers’ health. The aims of the study were to explore and specify the hearing threshold levels among steel industrial workers responsible in which higher noise levels of work zone and to examine the relationships of hearing loss and workers’ age and the length of employment in Samut Prakan province, Thailand. Cross-sectional study design was done. Ninety-three steel industrial workers in the designated zone of higher noise (> 85dBA) with more than 1 year of employment from two factories by simple random sampling and available to participate in were assessed by the audiometric screening at regional Samut Prakan hospital. Data of doing screening were collected from October to December, 2016 by the occupational medicine physician and a qualified occupational nurse. All participants were examined by the same examiners for the validity. An Audiometric testing was performed at least 14 hours after the last noise exposure from the workplace. Workers’ age and the length of employment were gathered by the developed occupational record form. Results: The range of workers’ age was from 23 to 59 years, (Mean = 41.67, SD = 9.69) and the length of employment was from 1 to 39 years, (Mean = 13.99, SD = 9.88). Fifty three (60.0%) out of all participants have been exposing to the hazard of noise in the workplace for more than 10 years. Twenty-three (24.7%) of them have been exposing to the hazard of noise less than or equal to 5 years. Seventeen (18.3%) of them have been exposing to the hazard of noise for 5 to 10 years. Using the cut point of less than or equal to 25 dBA of hearing thresholds, the average means of hearing thresholds for participants at 4, 6, and 8 kHz were 31.34, 29.62, and 25.64 dB, respectively for the right ear and 40.15, 32.20, and 25.48 dB for the left ear, respectively. The more developing age of workers in the work zone with hazard of noise, the more the hearing thresholds would be increasing at frequencies of 4, 6, and 8 kHz (p =.012, p =.026, p =.024) for the right ear, respectively and for the left ear only at the frequency 4 kHz (p =.009). Conclusion: The participants’ age in the hazard of noise work zone was significantly associated with the hearing loss in different levels while the length of participants’ employment was not significantly associated with the hearing loss. Thus hearing threshold levels among industrial workers would be regularly assessed and needed to be protected at the beginning of working.

Keywords: hearing threshold levels, hazard of noise, hearing loss, audiometric testing

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Authors: Mukesh Lal Das, Muthukumar Muthuchamy

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Climate change Adaptation strategy (AS) is a scientific approach to dealing with the impacts of climate change (CC). Efforts are being made to contain the global emission of greenhouse gas within threshold limits, thereby limiting the rise of global temperature to an optimal level. Global Climate change is a spontaneous process; therefore, reversing the damage would take decades. The climate change adaptation strategy recommended by various stakeholders could be a key to resilience for biodiversity. The Indian Government has constituted the panel to synthesize the climate change action report at the federal and state levels. This review scavenged the published literature on the Western Ghats hotspots. And highlight the adaptation strategy recommended by diverse scientific actors to conserve biodiversity. It also reviews the grey literature adopted by state and federal governments and its effectiveness in mitigating the impacts on biodiversity. We have narrowed the scope of interest to the state action report by 6 Indian states such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, which host Western Ghats global biodiversity hotspot. Western Ghats(WGs) act as the water tower to the peninsular part of India, and its extensive watershed caters to the water demand of the Industry sector, Agriculture and urban community. Conservation of WGs is the key to the prosperity of Peninsular India. The global scientific community suggested more than 600+ Climate change adaptation strategies for the policymakers, stakeholders, and other state actors to take proactive actions. The preliminary analysis of the federal and the state action plan on climate change in the wake of CC indicate inadequacy in motion as per recommended scientific adaptation strategies. Tamil Nadu and Kerala state constitute nine effective adaptation strategies out of the 40+ recommended for Western Ghats conservation. And other four states' adaptation strategies are deficient, confusing and vague. Western Ghats' resilience capacity will soon or might have reached its threshold, and the frequency of severe drought and flash floods might upsurge manifold in the decades to come. The lack of a clear roadmap to climate change adaptation strategies in the federal and state action stirred us to identify the gap and address it by offering a holistic approach to WGs biodiversity conservation.

Keywords: adaptation strategy, biodiversity conservation, climate change, resilience, Western Ghats

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Montaha Al Yaari, Ayman Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Introduction: It is well established that lengthening (longer duration) is considered one of the correlates of lexical and phrasal prominence. However, it is unexplored whether the scope of vowel lengthening in the Arabic dialect of Yemen (ADY) is differently affected by educated and/or uneducated speakers from different dialectal backgrounds. Specifically, the research aims to examine whether or not linguistic background acquired through different educational channels makes a difference in the speech of the speaker and how that is reflected in related psychoneurolinguistic impairments. Methods: For the above mentioned purpose, we conducted an articulatory experiment wherein a set of words from ADY were examined in the dialectal speech of thousand and seven hundred Yemeni educated and uneducated speakers aged 19-61 years growing up in five regions of the country: Northern, southern, eastern, western and central and were, accordingly, assigned into five dialectal groups. A seven-minute video clip was shown to the participants, who have been asked to spontaneously describe the scene they had just watched before the researchers linguistically and statistically analyzed recordings to weigh vowel lengthening in the speech of the participants. Results: The results show that vowels (monophthongs and diphthongs) are lengthened by all participants. Unexpectedly, educated and uneducated speakers from northern and central dialects lengthen vowels. Compared with uneducated speakers from the same dialect, educated speakers lengthen fewer vowels in their dialectal speech. Conclusions: These findings support the notion that extensive exposure to dialects on account of standard language can cause changes to the patterns of dialects themselves, and this can be seen in the speech of educated and uneducated speakers of these dialects. Further research is needed to clarify the phonemic distinctive features and frequency of lengthening in other open class systems (i.e., nouns, adjectives, and adverbs). Phonetic and phonological report measures are needed as well as validation of existing measures for assessing phonemic vowel length in the Arabic population in general and Arabic individuals with voice, speech, and language impairments in particular.

Keywords: vowel lengthening, Arabic dialect of Yemen, phonetics, phonology, impairment, distinctive features

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Authors: Morenikeji Aliu Balaji

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Gender inequality is seen as persistent discrimination of one group of people based gender, and it manifests itself differently according to race, culture, politics, country and economic situation. Multiple explanations have been offered for gender differences in literacy skill development. Three prominent explanations that precipitated the gender differences are; biological, where the assumption is that differential brain structures and hemispheric activation patterns cause the sexes to be hardwired differently for reading, with girls developing the cognitive skills associated with reading before boys. Secondly, schooling favour girls and ‘girly’ behaviour, and that boys are, as a result, lagging behind on several behavioural, social and academic measures and thirdly, cultural influences, where literacy is defined as a feminine characteristic – propagated by an overrepresentation of female teachers – and that modern culture steers boys towards activities such as sport and computers. Therefore the study investigated the influence of gender inequality on pre – primary school children literacy skills development in Ojo Local Government Area, Lagos State. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. 100 pre-primary school teachers were involved in the study. A self-designed instrument was used for data collection titled ‘Influence of Gender Inequality on Literacy Skill Development in Children Questionnaire (IGILSDCQ)’. The instrument was validated and tested for reliability. The reliability index for IGILSDCQ (α = 0.79). Five research questions were answered using descriptive (frequency count, simple percentage, mean and standard deviation). The findings showed that that gender inequality to some extent influence children phonemic awareness (WA=1.76), the extent to which gender inequality influence children awareness of print is high (WA=2.8), gender inequality to some extent influence children vocabulary development (WA = 2.4), the extent to which gender inequality influence children speaking skill development is high (WA = 2.5) and lastly, the extent to which gender inequality influence children comprehension ability is high (WA = 2.5). It was recommended among others that effort by the school administrators is necessary in the provision of reading materials and literacy skill development packages that are both male-oriented and female-oriented.

Keywords: pre-primart, literacy, awareness, phonemic, gender

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Authors: Ji Young Lee, Jong Woon Kim

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It is essential to secure high availability of railway vehicles to realize high quality and efficiency of railway service. Once the availability decreased, planned railway service could not be provided or more cars need to be reserved. additional cars need to be purchased or the frequency of railway service could be decreased. Such situation would be a big loss in terms of quality and cost related to railway service. Therefore, we make various efforts to get high availability of railway vehicles. Because it is a big loss to operators, we make various efforts to get high availability of railway vehicles. To secure high availability, the idle time of the vehicle needs to be reduced and the following methods are applied to railway vehicles. First, through modularization design, exchange time for line replaceable units is reduced which makes railway vehicles could be put into the service quickly. Second, to reduce periodic preventive maintenance time, preventive maintenance with short period would be proceeded test oriented to minimize the maintenance time, and reliability is secured through overhauls for each main component. With such design changes for railway vehicles, modularized components are exchanged first at the time of vehicle failure or overhaul so that vehicles could be put into the service quickly and exchanged components are repaired or overhauled. Therefore, spare components are required for any future failures or overhauls. And, as components are modularized and costs for components are high, it is considerably important to get reasonable quantities of spare components. Especially, when a number of railway vehicles were put into the service simultaneously, the time of overhauls come almost at the same time. Thus, for some vehicles, components need to be exchanged and overhauled before appointed overhaul period so that these components could be secured as spare parts for the next vehicle’s component overhaul. For this reason, components overhaul time and spare parts quantities should be decided at the same time. This study deals with the time of overhauls for repairable components of railway vehicles and the calculation of spare parts quantities in consideration of future failure/overhauls. However, as railway vehicles are used according to the service schedule, maintenance work cannot be proceeded after the service was closed thus it is quite difficult to resolve this situation mathematically. In this study, Simulation software system is used in this study for analyzing the time of overhauls for repairable components of railway vehicles and the spare parts for the railway systems.

Keywords: overhaul time, rolling stocks, simulation, spare parts

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Authors: Zuzanna Miodonska, Michal Krecichwost, Pawel Badura

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Sigmatism (lisping) is a speech disorder in which sibilant consonants are mispronounced. The diagnosis of this phenomenon is usually based on the auditory assessment. However, the progress in speech analysis techniques creates a possibility of developing computer-aided sigmatism diagnosis tools. The aim of the study is to statistically verify whether specific acoustic features of sibilant sounds may be related to pronunciation correctness. Such knowledge can be of great importance while implementing classifiers and designing novel tools for automatic sibilants pronunciation evaluation. The study covers analysis of various speech signal measures, including features proposed in the literature for the description of normative sibilants realization. Amplitudes and frequencies of three fricative formants (FF) are extracted based on local spectral maxima of the friction noise. Skewness, kurtosis, four normalized spectral moments (SM) and 13 mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) with their 1st and 2nd derivatives (13 Delta and 13 Delta-Delta MFCC) are included in the analysis as well. The resulting feature vector contains 51 measures. The experiments are performed on the speech corpus containing words with selected sibilant sounds (/ʃ, ʒ/) pronounced by 60 preschool children with proper pronunciation or with natural pathologies. In total, 224 /ʃ/ segments and 191 /ʒ/ segments are employed in the study. The Mann-Whitney U test is employed for the analysis of stigmatism and normative pronunciation. Statistically, significant differences are obtained in most of the proposed features in children divided into these two groups at p < 0.05. All spectral moments and fricative formants appear to be distinctive between pathology and proper pronunciation. These metrics describe the friction noise characteristic for sibilants, which makes them particularly promising for the use in sibilants evaluation tools. Correspondences found between phoneme feature values and an expert evaluation of the pronunciation correctness encourage to involve speech analysis tools in diagnosis and therapy of sigmatism. Proposed feature extraction methods could be used in a computer-assisted stigmatism diagnosis or therapy systems.

Keywords: computer-aided pronunciation evaluation, sigmatism diagnosis, speech signal analysis, statistical verification

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Authors: Emilienne Lardy, Eric Ballot, Mariam Lafkihi

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Efficient urban logistics requires a comprehensive understanding of traffic dynamics, particularly as it pertains to kinetic parameters influencing energy consumption and trip duration estimations. While real-time traffic information is increasingly accessible, current high-precision forecasting services embedded in route planning often function as opaque 'black boxes' for users. These services, typically relying on AI-processed counting data, fall short in accommodating open design parameters essential for management studies, notably within Supply Chain Management. This work revisits the modelling of traffic conditions in the context of city logistics, emphasizing its significance from the user’s point of view, with two focuses. Firstly, the focus is not on the vehicle flow but on the vehicles themselves and the impact of the traffic conditions on their driving behaviour. This means opening the range of studied indicators beyond vehicle speed, to describe extensively the kinetic and dynamic aspects of the driving behaviour. To achieve this, we leverage the Art. Kinema parameters are designed to characterize driving cycles. Secondly, this study examines how the driving context (i.e., exogenous factors to the traffic flow) determines the mentioned driving behaviour. Specifically, we explore how accurately the kinetic behaviour of a vehicle can be predicted based on a limited set of exogenous factors, such as time, day, road type, orientation, slope, and weather conditions. To answer this question, statistical analysis was conducted on real-world driving data, which includes high-frequency measurements of vehicle speed. A Factor Analysis and a Generalized Linear Model have been established to link kinetic parameters with independent categorical contextual variables. The results include an assessment of the adjustment quality and the robustness of the models, as well as an overview of the model’s outputs.

Keywords: factor analysis, generalised linear model, real world driving data, traffic congestion, urban logistics, vehicle kinematics

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Authors: Chun-Lin Zhang, Min Wan

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With the upgrade development of the tourism industry from the simple sightseeing tour to the leisure and vacation, people's travel idea has undergone a fundamental change. More and more people begin to pursue liberal and personal tourism, so self-driving tourism has become the main form of current tourism activities. With the self-driving tourism representing the general trend, the importance of convenient tourism transportation and perfect road traffic signs have become more and more prominent. A clear urban road traffic signs can help visitors quickly identify the direction and distance to the tourism destination. The purpose of this article is analyzing the planning of urban road traffic signs which can bring positive impact on the participation in the recreation involved of self-driving tourists. The content of this article is divided into three parts. Based on the literature review and theoretical analysis, the first part constructs a structural variance model. The model is from three dimensions: the attention of the self-driving tourists to the urban traffic signs along the road, the perception of the self-driving tourists to the road traffic signs itself, the perceptions of the self-driving tourists to the tourism destination information on the traffic signs. Through this model, the paper aims to explore the influence of the urban road traffic signs to the leisure psychological involvement and leisure behavior involvement of the self-driving tourists. The second part aims to verify through the hypothesis model the questionnaire survey and come to preliminary conclusions. The preliminary conclusions are as follows: firstly, the color, shape, size, setting mode and occurrence frequency of urban road traffic sign have significant influence on the leisure psychological involvement and leisure behavior involvement of the self-driving tourists. Secondly, the influence on the leisure behavior involvement is obviously higher than the influence on the leisure psychological involvement. Thirdly, the information about the tourism destination marked on the urban road traffic signs has not obviously influence on the leisure psychological involvement, but it has distinct influence on the leisure behavior involvement of self-driving tourists. The third part puts forward that the planning of urban road traffic signs should focus on the angle of the impact of road traffic signs on people's psychology and behavior. On the basis of the above conclusions, the paper researches the color, shape, size, setting mode and information labeling of urban road traffic signs so that they can preferably satisfy the demand of the leisure involvement of self-driving tourists.

Keywords: leisure involvement, self-driving tourism, structural equation, urban road traffic signs

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Authors: Roven Tumaneng, Angelica Kristina Monzon, Ralph Sedricke Lapuz, Jose Don De Alban, Jennica Paula Masigan, Joanne Rae Pales, Laila Monera Pornel, Dennis Tablazon, Rizza Karen Veridiano, Jackie Lou Wenceslao, Edmund Leo Rico, Neil Aldrin Mallari

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Most protected area management plans in the Philippines, particularly the smaller and more remote islands suffer from insufficient baseline data, which should provide the bases for formulating measureable conservation targets and appropriate management interventions for these protected areas. Attempts to synthesize available data particularly on cultural and socio-economic characteristic of local peoples within and outside protected areas also suffer from the lack of comprehensive and detailed inventories, which should be considered in designing adaptive management interventions to be used for those protected areas. Mt Guiting-guiting Natural Park (MGGNP) located in Sibuyan Island is one of the poorly studied protected areas in the Philippines. In this study, we determined the highly biologically important areas of the protected area using Maximum Entropy approach (MaxEnt) from environmental predictors (i.e., topographic, bioclimatic,land cover, and soil image layers) derived from global remotely sensed data and point occurrence data of species of birds and trees recorded during field surveys on the island. A total of 23 trigger species of birds and trees was modeled and stacked to generate species richness maps for biological high conservation value areas (HCVAs). Forest habitat change was delineated using dual-polarised L-band ALOS-PALSAR mosaic data at 25 meter spatial resolution, taken at two acquisition years 2007 and 2009 to provide information on forest cover ad habitat change in the island between year 2007 and 2009. Determining the livelihood guilds were also conducted using the data gathered from171 household interviews, from which demographic and livelihood variables were extracted (i.e., age, gender, number of household members, educational attainment, years of residency, distance from forest edge, main occupation, alternative sources of food and resources during scarcity months, and sources of these alternative resources).Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kruskal-Wallis test, the diversity and patterns of forest resource use by people in the island were determined with particular focus on the economic activities that directly and indirectly affect the population of key species as well as to identify levels of forest resource use by people in different areas of the park.Results showed that there are gaps in the area occupied by the natural park, as evidenced by the mismatch of the proposed HCVAs and the existing perimeters of the park. We found out that subsistence forest gathering was the possible main driver for forest degradation out of the eight livelihood guilds that were identified in the park. Determining the high conservation areas and identifyingthe anthropogenic factors that influence the species richness and abundance of key species in the different management zone of MGGNP would provide guidance for the design of a protected area management plan and future monitoring programs. However, through intensive communication and consultation with government stakeholders and local communities our results led to setting conservation targets in local development plans and serve as a basis for the reposition of the boundaries and reconfiguration of the management zones of MGGNP.

Keywords: conservation gaps, livelihood guilds, MaxEnt, protected area

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Authors: Mansi Patel, Priti Mehta

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Background: Ionizing radiations have detrimental effects on humans, and the growing technological encroachment has increased human exposure to it enormously. So, the safety issues have emphasized researchers to develop radioprotector from natural resources having minimal toxicity. A substance having anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory activity can be a potential candidate for radioprotection. One such plant with immense potential i.e. Bamboo was selected for the present study. Purpose: The study aims to evaluate the potential of Indian bamboo leaves for protection against the clastogenic effect of gamma radiation. Methods: The protective effect of bamboo leaf extract against gamma radiation-induced genetic damage in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (HPBLs) was evaluated in vitro using Cytokinesis blocked micronuclei assay (CBMN). The blood samples were pretreated with varying concentration of extract 30 min before the radiation exposure (4Gy & 6Gy). The reduction in the frequency of micronuclei was observed for the irradiated and control groups. The effect of various concentration of bamboo leaf extract (400,600,800 mg/kg) on the development of radiation induced sickness and altered mortality in mice exposed to 8 Gy of whole-body gamma radiation was studied. The developed symptoms were clinically scored by multiple endpoints for 30 days. Results: Treatment of HPBLs with varying concentration of extract before exposure to a different dose of γ- radiation resulted in significant (P < 0.0001) decline of radiation induced micronuclei. It showed dose dependent and concentration driven activity. The maximum protection ~ 70% was achieved at nine µg/ml concentration. Extract treated whole body irradiated mice showed 50%, 83.3% and 100% survival for 400, 600, and 800mg/kg with 1.05, 0.43 and 0 clinical score respectively when compared to Irradiated mice having 6.03 clinical score and 0% survival. Conclusion: Our findings indicate bamboo leaf extract reduced the radiation induced cytogenetic damage. It has also increased the survival ratio and reduced the radiation induced sickness and mortality when exposed to a lethal dose of gamma radiation.

Keywords: bamboo leaf extract, Cytokinesis blocked micronuclei (CBMN) assay, ionizing radiation, radio protector

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